Happy 4th of July from Dr. Seuss and Abraham Lincoln

This was inspired by Mooselicker, who mentioned both Dr. Seuss and Abraham Lincoln in a comment on my last post. It gave me the idea to rework the Gettysburg Address as a Dr. Seuss poem. I like to think Lincoln would have appreciated it. And the message is just as relevant today as it was in 1863.

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‘Twas eighty and seven years past, so they say
That our founders created the US of A

With all of us equal! The Wuggles! The Fuzzins!
And even our naughty Confederate cousins!

Now there’s a war and it’s bad and it’s sad
But a time will soon come when we’ll all be quite glad

That our nation still stands and our country’s still here
And we’ll all drink a toast with a mug of Sneetch beer

These bravest of soldiers did not die for naught
We need a do-over to do what we ought

So let’s have no more of this Civil War folly
And remember our government’s purpose, by golly

Of people! By people! For people! Yes!
But right now this country’s one heckuva mess

I want for this country a sort of rebirth
So all these nice freedoms don’t perish from Earth.

It would be hard to add to your beautiful verse,
and to try such a thing would be unduly perverse.
However, nerd that I am thrilled to see
your evident knowledge of our history,
and if I could find anything to rhyme with ‘Constitution’
I’d say it was clever of you to start with the ratification of the Constitution.

Aww, thanks, Grippy. Abe did most of the heavy lifting in his original speech—if you’ve never read it, click on the link in my post, it’s a beauty. To me it’s one of the most beautiful speeches ever written. And Mooselicker earned this shoutout—if it hadn’t been for him I never would have thought of this. 🙂

Incredible – I stand in awe and shock and wonder and awe. And wonder.
Glad to see a nod to us naughty Confederate cousins. Yes ma’am!
Shouldn’t there be something in there about Red Fish, Blue Fish? Ah well, maybe another holiday….

Thankee ma’am, I’m much obliged. I would have put One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish in there except that old Abe didn’t make a long enough speech to throw in some additional Seuss references. Next time, though!